Baku/20.07.17/Turan: On July 20, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced two more decisions on Azerbaijan concerning complaints of youth activists Dayanat Babayev, Ulvi Hasanli, Shahin Mirzoyev, Turgut Gambar and Ilkin Rustamzadeh. The decisions are published on the ECHR website. The applicants complained about their detention during the protests in 2011-2013.For example, Babayev was subjected to three times for participation in protest actions to administrative arrests for a period of 7 to 10 days. Hasanli was arrested twice and every seven days.
Mirzoyev, Gambar and Rustamzade were also arrested for participating in protest actions in 2013. They regarded the arrests as violations of their freedom of assembly and freedom of speech and appealed to national courts. After the activists had exhausted all the domestic mechanisms of appeal, applications were sent to the ECHR. The Strasbourg Court found violations of the applicants' rights under articles 5 (the right to liberty and security of the person), 6 (the right to a fair trial) and 11 (freedom of assembly) European Convention on Human Rights.
ECHR decided to pay Babayev, Hasanli and Gambar compensation of 10 thousand euros each. Mirzoyev was awarded a compensation of 8 thousand euros, and Rustamzade - 6.000 euros. Gambar is additionally entitled to compensation for material damage amounting to 2,860 euros. Another 3450 euros the government must pay the applicants for indignation of court expenses. The decision of the ECtHR comes into force in 3 months.
Ilkin Rustamzade is still under arrest on criminal charges. He was arrested in May 2013 on the case of NIDA activists on charges of organizing riots, hooliganism, etc., and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Other convicted six activists were subsequently pardoned. -16d-
Politics
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